In many industries where products are dispensed, there are at least three parties involved in providing dispensed products to a consumer of such products—the manufacturer/provider of the dispenser, the manufacturer/provider of the products to be dispensed and the party who controls the site where the dispenser is situated. For example, in the dispensing of roll paper products (e.g., toweling and tissue) to end users, the three parties would be the manufacturer/provider of the roll paper dispenser, the manufacturer/provider of the roll(s) of sheet paper to be dispensed and the controller of the washroom or other venue where the paper dispenser is mounted and used.
Typically, in the provision of roll paper to an end user, the provider of sheet paper also provides the paper dispenser at no charge to the controller of the venue where the dispenser is used. This is done to earn the goodwill of the controller of the venue and to encourage the controller of the venue to buy the paper provider's paper products. In the majority of cases, however, the relationship between the provider of sheet paper and the controller of the venue lasts only as long as the provider maintains a low price on the paper. If the controller of the venue terminates its relationship with the paper provider quickly, the paper provider may lose money on the relationship at least in part because of the provision of dispensers for which the venue controller paid nothing. If the paper provider has given the controller of the venue universal dispensers that can handle standard sheet paper products (as is most common), those dispensers can continue to be used by the venue controller for standard paper acquired from alternate sources.
This leaves the provider of paper in a difficult situation. On the one hand, because of industry practices and expectations, they are forced to provide free dispensers to venue controllers. On the other hand, if the relationship is not maintained for an appropriate period of time, the paper provider can lose money (or make insufficient profit).
At first blush, it might seem that one solution would be to provide uniquely sized paper and corresponding dispensers. While this plan has some appeal, it has a number of drawbacks. First, most paper manufacturers/converters (also referred to herein as “paper companies”) produce roll sheet paper in standard sizes. In order to convert to non-standard sizes the manufacturers and converters would have to modify or replace existing equipment. If the change was not made across the board, a manufacturer/converter would have to have at least two sets of equipment or have the ability to change back and forth. Second, distributors are often the recipients of dispensers and paper from paper manufacturers or converters. Distributors may deal with a multitude of vendors for paper and dispensers depending upon the perceived needs of the distributors' own customers and prevailing pricing. Such distributors generally do not want to have to carry multiple sizes of paper and dispensers. Third, manufacturers, converters and other providers of paper in the supply chain want the opportunity to take away business from others. More often than not, such opportunities require the provision of standard sized paper toweling. As a result, a shift to uniquely sized paper products might well impair a provider's ability to exploit such opportunities. Finally, to the extent a provider is successful in promoting the adoption of uniquely sized paper, at some point, a third party will seek to benefit from that success and match the size of the then formerly unique configuration.
The unique size approach and several others that have been proposed, all focus on modifying or otherwise marking the material to be dispensed. In other words, it is the product itself that somehow must be compatible with the dispenser. If the product is not compatible, the dispenser will not (or cannot) dispense the material.
As can be seen, the current approaches to providing dispensed material and ensuring the continued acquisition of material from a given supplier suffer from certain drawbacks and limitations. Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method limiting the source of paper material that can be used in given dispenser, and solves other problems associated with existing systems and methods.